“The men—the men! But the women—”
“Men grow richer than women, for the outside is bigger than the inside of the house. You wish the five to have my riches when I die. Lonami wishes Eninumo to have the goods of Harran. Innina wishes her three to have the flocks of Akarnad. It will be so with other women.”
“Children to go from mother-kin into father-kin—”
“Still they would be your children—as now they are my children—and yet I have no honour from them, and when my kindred gather to a feast they come not with them!”
“I give them no longer my name, nor the name of my mother!”
Mardurbo was deep in love with the plan that had fallen like the shooting star. He struck the threshold stone. “What harm to women if they take name from fathers instead of from mothers?”
“If they take name from men!”
“To this night,” said Mardurbo, “men have taken name from women.”
“I go to see Kamilil,” said Vana.
She went when the sun was pushing above the plain. Kamilil was already twisting red wool, while in the rear of the house the daughters sang like birds. “Mother Kamilil,” said Vana, “what did you see in the smoke of the plants you gathered?”